Home is where the heart is!

Hello!
Just a *tad* excited this evening....I'm a Guest Designer over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight!
I love PaperArtsy, have been a fan since the very beginning, so I was thrilled when Darcy asked me if I would like to be 'an Experimentor' ! Sounds all very Harry Potter doesn't it?......
I was asked to choose a PaperArtsy product, and then think a bit outside of the box and experiment. See if I could come up with anything interesting!
I chose grunge paste......and went a bit large with it! The experiment and accompanying pics are over on the PA blog now, but I'll show you some more pictures here of the finished result!

This is the finished project.....a shadow box! I created the box by cutting out greyboard, then sticking it together with masking tape. I made it to measure my house, but of course you could use ready made boxes if you have one that fits your project! I then covered the whole thing with book pages, glued down with gel medium. This has two purposes, as well as looking cool, the paper/gel medium combo adds loads of stability when dry. I gave the box a wash of Snowflake paint, then smeared on a little Mermaid and Guacamole paint too. A simple colour scheme, as I wanted the focus to be on the house.
To add a little design to the inside of the box, I used the stamping on tissue method to get some dots and checkerboard images onto my tricky-to-stamp-on surface..

The dots are from The Electica Ellen Vargo 6 set, and the checkerboard is from the Man of Numbers plate two. I gave my shadow box a 'hanger' of sorts...can you tell what it is?

Yep..it's a pencil! Given a few coats of Gesso, then wired to the top of the box.
My box 'feet' are half spools, great to use as feet as the flat part sits snugly against the bottom of your project..

As you can see, I  added a little circle to the spool, a tiny punched out bit of painted card, with added doodles! I also added some grasses, again cut from card and with lines drawn on with a fineliner pen.
The bunting is very simple, cut out triangles of the same painted card...

I added cut out letters, then glued the triangles onto some white cord. Strung across the top left corner of the shadowbox, it creates the first part of the title of the whole piece!
The remaining words were cut out and glued to more card, and placed at the bottom right of the shadow box..

So....the main part of the box is the house!

Made from grunge paste (yes really!), then painted with the same colours as the rest of the piece. I then used the stamping on tissue method again, using gel medium to glue down white painty stamped dots, green checkerboards and a blue grid design. once dry, the gel medium gives a fab shiny finish, and is great for doodling over! As you can see, I sketched a door, and a few roof tiles. The wings come from one of my favourite sets, Hot Pick 1301 (although you can find them without the text background on Hot Pick 1203 too!) I stamped them onto a white painted book page, cut them out and glued them to the back of the house. My final touch is my one pop of vibrant colour! I created a heart from Grunge paste, then painted it with London Bus red paint. I gave it a coat of Glossy Accents to give the shiny look, then added it to the house as a finishing touch.
I really had a ball with this....and I hope you pop on over to the PA blog to see exactly how I made the house!
See you soon,
Trish xxxxxx